Some bloggers have all of the luck. While I’m in Hong Kong, listening to a guy explain that laptop battery fire is actually a “runaway thermal event,” Shanghai Shiok!‘s Christine H. Tan has been wandering around the ghostly 5.25 sq km of prime Shanghai riverbank once home to Expo 2010 [Shanghai World’s Fair]. It’s something…
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China to Consider Lifting Ban on Imported Electronic Wastes
This afternoon an influential leader in China’s multi-billion dollar recycling industry gave strong indications that China will soon loosen its ban on the importation of waste electronic devices such as computer circuit boards. The import of such devices is a sensitive issue in China, particularly due to the intense foreign media interest on so-called “toxic…
Firing your best bullet, and other thoughts on rare earth mania.
A brief list of commodities of which China is a net importer: oil, iron ore, soy beans, wheat, corn, aluminum scrap metal, copper scrap metal, steel scrap metal, recyclable paper stock. That is to say, China lacks sufficient domestic supplies of these resources, and must resort to other countries for supply. Among the leading suppliers…
Who’s surprised by the rare earth embargo? Not Toyota.
I’ve been traveling for the last week, and only now catching up on China’s possible decision to place an embargo on rare earth elements to Japan (or not – according to the WSJ). I’m not in the habit of commenting on headlines, but in this case, I’d like to make a point that I haven’t…
How to commit fraud, save money, and benefit the environment – all at once (in Shanghai).
[With a special end note for my friends and colleagues in the foreign media and environmental activist community.] China is the world’s second largest market for PCs and other electronic devices. This is a good thing if you’re a manufacturer, but – potentially – a very, very bad thing if you’re an environmentalist concerned about…
The Shanghai Scrap e-waste Challenge
As regular readers may know, over the years I’ve spent a significant number of non-blogging hours investigating and reporting on the Chinese e-waste trade for trade and mainstream publications. For those who are not regular readers, e-waste can be broadly defined as waste computers, monitors, cell phones and other broken, obsolete, and unwanted artifacts from…
The Fruits of Recycling: Cancerous Take-out Containers.
Late last week the China Daily and other news outlets reported on a recently released study by the Hong Kong-based International Food Packaging Association (IFPA) showing that roughly half of the disposable dishware (think: plastic and paper take-out boxes) is substandard, and often can be found “with excessive amounts of chemicals that can cause cancer.”…
Shanghai Eats Itself: Scrapping Dongjiadu
For those not familiar with it, Dongjiadu is a lower middle-class neighborhood south of the Bund, near the last remains of Shanghai’s old city. It’s old by Shanghai standards – some of the building might date back three centuries, I’m told – and poor. It’s also in the way of Shanghai’s ongoing redevelopment and bulldozers…
In the trenches, sorting scrap.
Sheepishly, I concede that this is the second or third post in which I’ve promised to get back to regular blogging shortly. But, you know, Chinese New Year leads into a new year of work, and now I’m bogged down in a couple of projects that require my fixed attention. In the case of one…
Christmas Tree Recycling, Shanghai Style.
Regular readers may recall this blog’s comprehensive survey of 141 Shanghai Christmas trees, posted in December. Ever since and, really, before, Shanghai Scrap has taken a keen interest in these Western holiday accessories: who owns them, why, and what happens to them after Christmas. One answer suggests that certain Christmas traditions are universal: namely, the…